Wednesday 25 September 2019, 7.30pm
Very pleased to present a two-day residency with Lebanese musician, writer and illustrator, Mazen Kerbaj, who has helped break new ground in Beirut's free improvisation and experimental music scenes.
As a trumpet player, Kerbaj has collaborated and performed with a number of respected artists, among them French-Lebanese saxophonist Christine Sehnaoui, the Ariha Brass Quarter with Axel Dörner, percussionist Sven-Åke Johansson and Mats Gustafsson. His Al Maslakh label was established in 2005 as the first experimental outlet the country, and a second imprint, Johnny Kafta's Kid's Menu, was created in 2009 following a collaboration with Lebanese punk-rock outfit Scrambled Eggs.
In 2000, alongside Sharif Sehnaoui, Kerbaj founded the MILL association and associated Irtijal Festival, the longest-running festival for non-conformist contemporary music in Lebanon. Billing esteemed artists from throughout the region alongside contemporaries from the European circuit such as Gert-Jan Prins, Sam Shackleton, Miles Whittaker, and Rabih Beaini's Upperground Orchestra and Morphosis projects, Irtijal is widely regarded as the most prominent assembly for experimental music in the Arab world.
Kerbaj is the author of numerous books, and his comics and short stories have been published in anthologies, newspapers and magazines in Lebanon, Europe and the States. His visual works have been shown in both solo and group exhibitions in Lebanon, France, England, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Dubai, Malaysia and the US. He currently lives and works in Beirut.
“The series of preparations he put his trumpet through that evening was truly revelatory.” – Nate Wooley
Sholto Dobie is an artist and performer living in London. He uses loose structures and and array of instruments including home-made organs and bagpipes, field recordings, guitar, concertina and anything else that comes to hand. His performances are personal and intuitive, often coming across as delicate, evocative, and absurd.
He has presented solo performances at Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, Cafe OTO, Glasgow International and CCA, Glasgow. He has released music on Cosmovisión registros andinos and OtoRoku. He regularly collaborates with Ben Pritchard, and has played in combinations with Ashley Paul, Mark Harwood, Lia Mazzari, United Bible Studies, Billy Steiger and Ivor Kallin.
He is also runs the event series Muckle Mouth which he founded in 2014 and co-curates at The Horse Hospital in London.
ANGHARAD DAVIES is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free improvisation, compositions and performance. Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation. Much of her work involves collaboration. She has long-standing duos with Tisha Mukarji, Dominic Lash and Lina Lapelyte and plays with Common Objects, Cranc and Skogen. She has been involved in projects with Tarek Atui, Tony Conrad, Richard Dawson, Gwenno, Roberta Jean, Jack McNamara, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, Eliane Radigue, Georgia Ruth and J. G. Thirlwell. Most of her records are released on Another Timbre but she also has releases on Absinth Records, all that dust, Confrontrecords, Emanem, Potlatch and winds measure recordings. Her first orchestral piece was commissioned by LCMF in 2019. She is currently writing a piece for Juliet Fraser and Explore Ensemble.
